Bel Ami Series (detail) by Matt Lambert – one of the images in the new More Boys! Boys! Boys! show (Photo: Matt Lambert)
A new show of sizzling hot male portraiture comes to London next week and online.
More Boys! Boys! Boys! is the third online auction of male photography to hit auction site Paddle8. However, following the success of previous sales, this collection will also enjoy a physical exhibition. The exhibition comes to the Hospital Club in Covent Garden.
Curator Ghislain Pascal of The Little Black Gallery told GSN, ‘We thought that it was about time that we started a touring exhibition of highlights from the sales beginning with London and next going to Amsterdam at The Ravestijn Gallery in March next year – with more cities to be added.’
Pascal calls the show, ‘a truly global project celebrating male sexuality and fine art photography.’
Photographers who feature in the show include AdeY, Lulu Delafalaise, Thibault Gaëtan Dubroca, Stephane Gizard and Stuart Sandford. Arguably the best known is Greg Gorman, who has had several books of his work published.
‘I want to continue to push the boundaries and prove that queer and gay photography has a serious place in the art market,’ says Pascal in a press release for the show.
‘A massive chasm in the art market between images of women and men’
Some of the images in the show are sexual in nature. Does Pascal feel male homoerotic photography is moving more towards the mainstream.
‘I wouldn’t label the sale as homoerotic,’ he responds. ‘There are some incredibly sexy and erotic images in the sale, but there are also some beautiful non-erotic images.
‘What we are trying to achieve is to present images of boys by gay and queer photographers in the art world as fine art photography,’ he adds.
‘Although we have been looking at images of boys for thousands of years, there seems to be a massive chasm in the art market between images of women and men.
‘We are hoping to start bridging that gap and really push these exceptionally talented photo-artists into the mainstream art market.’
Will the exhibition be most appreciated by gay men, or are women, art investors and others also showing interest?
‘The sale is very much targeted at gay men,’ says Pascal. ‘We are trying to say it is absolutely fine to hang pictures of boys on your walls, and people seem to be responding.
‘At the same time I do have collectors and female clients who also buy. The shrewd ones realise that the queer and gay photography market is still in its infancy and there are bound to be one or two artists who really take off and have the potential to become highly collectible fine art photographers, like Mapplethorpe, Ryan McKinley, Juergen Teller.’
More Boys! Boys! Boys! runs at The Hospital Club from 28-30 September 2018. Photos are on sale on Paddle8 from 18 September. A book to accompany the show is also available, with a forward by David Furnish. Proceeds from the book go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
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